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[FYI] (Fwd) IP: Nation's banks create private computer security system
- To: debate@fitug.de
- Subject: [FYI] (Fwd) IP: Nation's banks create private computer security system
- From: "Axel H. Horns" <Horns@t-online.de>
- Date: Mon, 4 Oct 1999 09:17:23 +0200
- Comment: This message comes from the debate mailing list.
- Organization: PA Axel H. Horns
- Sender: owner-debate@fitug.de
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Date sent: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 22:41:04 -0400
To: dcsb@ai.mit.edu, Digital Bearer Settlement List <dbs@philodox.com>,
cryptography@c2.net
From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Subject: IP: Nation's banks create private computer security system
--- begin forwarded text
Date: 1 Oct 99 19:13:56 EDT
From: ROBERT HARPER <robert-harper@usa.net>
To: Ignition Point <ignition-point@precision-d.com>
Subject: IP: Nation's banks create private computer security system
Sender: owner-ignition-point@precision-d.com
Reply-To: ROBERT HARPER <robert-harper@usa.net>
http://www.foxnews.com/js_index.sml?content=/news/wires2/1001/n_ap_1001_276.sml
Nation's banks create private computer security system
6.33 p.m. ET (2240 GMT) October 1, 1999
By Ted Bridis, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - The nation's banking industry has quietly
wired itself a $1.5 million private computer network to
share information anonymously about electronic threats from
rogue employees, software bugs, viruses and hackers, the
Treasury Department said Friday.
The Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis
Center is the result of orders from President Clinton to
better protect America's most important industries from
cyber attacks. It's in a secret location known to only about
a half-dozen people, but it's believed to be nestled among a
corridor of high-tech firms in northern Virginia.
Similar centers are planned in the coming months for seven
other industries, including telecommunications, oil and gas,
electrical power, transportation and America's water supply
system.
This summer, the White House announced its plan to create a
government-wide security network to protect its most
important nonmilitary computers.
"New threats call for new types of solutions,'' said
Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, adding that banking
officials need to learn about viruses and malicious software
that disguises itself as innocuous code.
Only licensed banks and other government-regulated financial
firms that become subscribers will be able to exchange
information or tap into this network's details of known
security threats. Urgent alerts will be sent by e-mail,
pager and cellular phones to a bank's experts - who will pay
$13,000 to $125,000, depending on how many employees are
using it.
"Every day, everywhere, people are trying to break into
financial institutions - and sometimes from within financial
institutions - trying to take money they're not authorized
to have,'' said Kawika Daguio, vice president of the
Washington-based Financial Information Protection
Association.
Names and other identifying details will be stripped from
submissions to ensure anonymity and encourage honesty - and
partly so rival banks don't misuse the information and
regulators can never know a specific financial institution
was having problems.
"Once we demonstrated that you could have an anonymous
capability so you can't trace it, most institutions stood up
immediately and said, `Let's go do this,''' said Bill
Marlow, executive vice president for Global Integrity, the
consulting company in Reston, Va., that built the center.
Organizers said 16 financial institutions - with a total of
$4.5 trillion in assets among them - have so far joined the
network, with 500 to 1,000 more expected to join in the next
18 months.
One of the center's greatest strengths, say organizers, will
be its ability to notice trends: A report by one bank of a
hacker sniffing around its network becomes more onerous if
dozens of other banks also report noticing exactly the same
technique.
"Not a day goes by without seeing alerts about security,
vulnerabilities in the products we use or news stories about
Internet sites being compromised,'' said Steve Katz of
Citigroup Inc., the center's coordinator. "What might appear
to any one company as a random event might be more
significant if looked at in the aggregate.''
Although the Treasury Department helped organize the center,
government leaders said U.S. agencies won't eavesdrop on the
threat information disclosed by banks. However, the
government will volunteer details about security problems
through the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center.
"If they choose to give information to the government,
that's nice,'' said Richard Clarke of the National Security
Council. "The government, however, will share information
with them ... both classified and non-classified
information.''
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Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
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